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HavenWorks.com/law/enforcement/archive/2005 |
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US
- 
International
- 
Iraq
- 
Secret
- 
GOV
- 
Terrorism
- 
Intelligence
- Telecommunications
- E-Mail
- 
Privacy
- 
Politics
- 
Media
- Enforcement
- "US
investigates leak of spy program: Prosecutors focus
on disclosure to New York Times." ... "The Justice Department has opened
a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about a controversial
domestic eavesdropping program that was secretly authorized by President
Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said yesterday."
... "Justice Department prosecutors will focus on whether classified information
about the program was unlawfully disclosed to The New York Times, which
reported two weeks ago that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency
to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of people in the
United States without court-approved warrants, officials said." ... "The
case is the latest in a series of clashes between the media and the Bush
administration, which has aggressively enforced restrictions on classified
information and has frequently complained about media disclosures related
to terrorism or the war in Iraq." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost
via -BostonGlobe
Indonesia
- US
- 
Business
- Police
- "Indonesian
military admits being paid by US mining firm." ...
"Indonesia's military admitted yesterday that officers received payments
from a local subsidiary of the American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to
guard its huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua, the western, Indonesian,
half of New Guinea island." ... "The admission comes after a report in
the New York Times claimed that Freeport Indonesia paid military and police
officers, and several army units £11.7m from 1998 to 2004. Some officers
allegedly received tens of thousands of pounds. If they kept any of the
money themselves, it would be a criminal offence." -By
John Aglionby -Guardian.co.uk
Egypt
- 
Sudan
- 
UN
- Politics
- "10
dead in Cairo protest camp clearance." ... "Ten Sudanese
refugees, including a young girl, were killed today when Egyptian police
fired water cannon and beat migrants with clubs to break up a protest camp
in Cairo." ... "Up to 2,000 refugees had lived in the camp for three months,
demanding that the UN refugee agency resettle them." ... "The sit-in began
in September after the UN high commissioner for refugees stopped hearing
the cases of Sudanese asylum seekers, a decision which followed the signing
in January of a peace accord that ended Sudan's 21-year civil war."
-Guardian.co.uk
Secret
- Government
- Law
Enforcement
- Law
- Privacy
- "U.S.
secret surveillance up sharply since Sept. 11." ...
"Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance
rose sharply after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required
changes to the requests at a even greater rate, government documents show."
... "The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance
court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications
for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most
recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years,
the court received a total of 3,436." -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
US
- Iraq
- Police
- "U.S.
Seeks To Escape Brutal Cycle In Iraqi City: 3rd Try
at Pullout Depends on Police." ... "On one of his last days in Iraq, Sgt.
Dale Evans looked out over the turbulent city from a rooftop tower piled
high with sandbags, manning a machine gun. Below him, rows of Bradley Fighting
Vehicles stood at the ready. Dusty streets were lined with coiled barbed
wire and abandoned houses pockmarked from gunfire -- a protective no-man's
land around a base that U.S. commanders describe as their "battleship"
in downtown Samarra." ... "This month, Evans and his company from the 3rd
Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, will leave Patrol Base Uvanni, beginning
a third attempt in as many years by U.S. forces to hand this Sunni city
over to Iraqi police. It's a major test for the U.S. military in Iraq,
and one U.S. commanders here say they can't afford to fail." ... "Since
2003, Samarra has come to symbolize the trials and errors of U.S. strategy
in Iraq -- a cycle of military offensives, lulls and new waves of lethal
insurgent attacks." (1, 2)
-By Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost
Iraq
- Terrorism
- Police
- Politics
- "Gunmen
kill Iraqi forces, bombs shake Baghdad." ... "Guerrillas
killed 10 Iraqi policemen and soldiers in attacks north of Baghdad on Monday,
while the capital itself was rocked by five major explosions that left
at least eight dead." ... "It was one of the bloodiest days in Iraq since
the largely peaceful election on December 15, when rival ethnic and sectarian
groups took part in a vote for a new parliament. By nightfall, at least
20 were killed and over 40 injured." -By Deepa Babington
with contributions by Faris al-Mehdawi in Baquba, Aseel Kami and Gideon
Long -Reuters.co.uk
Government
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Law
- Telecommunications
- Business
- 
Internet
- Privacy
- Politics
- "Spy
Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report."
... "The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes
of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United
States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity,
according to current and former government officials." ... "The volume
of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks,
without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has
acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly
into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they
said." ... "As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic
surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of
American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams
of domestic and international communications, the officials said." ...
"The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic
have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials
familiar with the program." -By Eric Lichtblau and
James Risen
(1,
2)
-NYTimes
Travel
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - "Airport
security changes create little noise: Guidelines
that now allow small scissors, sharp objects have little effect on travelers."
... "New airport security guidelines that allow passengers to carry small
scissors and other sharp objects were implemented Thursday at airports
nationwide, including Houston." ... "Security personnel will now focus
on detecting explosives rather than confiscating small sharp objects."
-By Armando Villafranca -HoustonChronicle.com
US
- 
Arizona
- 
Mexico
- Drugs
- Terrorism
- Law
- Intelligence
- "Surprise
- terror war aids drug war: One Arizona border unit
sees marijuana haul triple." ... "As Congress and President Bush wrangle
over the USA Patriot Act, the Border Security bill, and other tools of
the war on terror, they may want to keep another law-enforcement group
in mind - the nation's drug-fighters." ... "That's because the war on terror
is proving to be a boon to the war on drugs. Drug seizures are up all along
the US-Mexico border. Nowhere is the trend clearer than along a desolate
118-mile patch of Arizona desert across the border from the Mexican state
of Sonora." ... "In what is rapidly becoming one of the highest drug-trafficking
and people- smuggling sectors along the border, US Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) officers there have seized 13,000 pounds of marijuana since Oct.
1, triple the amount captured in the same period last year. That year,
fiscal 2005, also set a record. The reasons for the success? Better intelligence-sharing,
increased manpower, and improved technology that border officials have
received in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks." -By
Faye Bowers -CSMonitor
Canada
- US
- World
- Drugs
- Internet
- Privacy-
"Meth
addicts' other habit: Online theft." ... "Hot on
the trail of identity thieves, veteran [Alberta, Canada] Edmonton Police
Service detectives Al Vonkeman and Bob Gauthier last winter hustled to
a local motel, a cinder-block establishment where rooms rent by the hour."
... "Inside Room 24 the detectives found meth pipes, stolen credit cards,
notebooks with handwritten notations about fraudulent transactions and
printouts of stolen identity data." ... "Evidence in the motel room would
ultimately lead them to a much bigger revelation: The Edmonton ring had
gone global." ... "It no longer relied solely on dumpster-diving, mailbox-pilfering
street addicts to supply stolen credit cards, checks and account statements,
the grist for local thefts. Instead, it had advanced to complex joint ventures,
conducted over the Internet, in partnership with organized cybercrime rings
outside the country." ... "What's happening in Edmonton is happening to
one degree or another in communities across the USA and Canada — anywhere
meth addicts are engaging in identity theft and can get on the Internet,
say police, federal law enforcement officials and Internet security experts."
-By Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz
-USATODAY
Water
- US
- 
Turkey
- Police
- 
Connecticut
- "Congress
turns attention to cruise safety." ... "George Allen
Smith IV vanished from a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship in the Mediterranean
10 days after his wedding last summer. His family says he was a victim
of foul play covered up by the cruise ship line to avoid bad publicity."
... "Smith's wife, Jennifer Hagel Smith, says ship officials forced her
from the vessel after her husband's disappearance and abandoned her in
Turkey, where she ended up at a police station and later a hospital with
no food, money, clothing or ticket home." -AP
via -USATODAY
Australia
- "Racial
Violence Erupts in Sydney for Second Successive Night."
... "Sydney erupted into a second night of racial violence as gangs of
young men of Middle-Eastern appearance attacked people in streets and smashed
cars and shop windows in the city's southern and western suburbs, police
said." ... "Police tried to block bridges and roads to the beachside suburb
of Cronulla when a convoy of about 70 cars carrying armed youths drove
to the area to retaliate for the bashing of people of Middle-Eastern appearance
during a riot by about 5,000 residents protesting an attack on two volunteer
lifeguards a week ago." -By Miriam Steffens -Bloomberg
France- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- "French
target 'Islamic network': Police investigating suspected
plans for attacks in France have arrested at least 20 people during raids
in and around Paris." ... "They described the arrests as a "major operation
aimed at disbanding an Islamist network linked to terrorism"." ... "Agents
of the domestic intelligence service, the DST, raided homes around Paris
before dawn." -BBC
/News
Lebanon
- 
Syria
- France
- UN
- Media
- Police
- "Anti-Syrian
legislator killed by Beirut car bomb." ... "A car
bomb killed Lebanese newspaper magnate and anti-Syrian legislator Gebran
Tueni in Beirut on Monday, less than 24 hours after he returned from Paris
[France] where he lived for several months fearing assassination." ...
"Several politicians blamed Syria and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said
he would ask the U.N. Security Council to investigate a series of attacks
that have rocked Lebanon since the February 14 killing of former Prime
Minister Rafik al-Hariri." ... "Syria denies any role in the attacks and
said the latest killing was timed to smear it." ... "Police said Tueni,
publisher of the An-Nahar daily newspaper, was among four people killed
in the explosion that destroyed his armoured vehicle in the Mekalis area
of mainly Christian east Beirut. More than 30 people were wounded." (1,
2,
3) -By Nadim Ladki and Lin Noueihed with contributions
by Alaa Shahine and Ayat Basma -Reuters
Secret
- Government
- Wireless
- Telecommunications
- 
Technology
- Law
Enforcement - Law
- 
New
York
- 
Texas
- 
Maryland
- Noteworthy
- "Live
Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy."
... "Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government
agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the
handset." ... "In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to
cellular technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements
of suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance - which investigators
have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders - has now come
under tougher legal scrutiny." ... "In the last four months, three federal
judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information
from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe
that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard
applied to requests for search warrants." ... "The rulings, issued by magistrate
judges in New York, Texas and Maryland, underscore the growing debate over
privacy rights and government surveillance in the digital age." (1, 2)
-By Matt Richtel -NYTimes
US
- Iraq
- Politics
- Police
- "Bus
bombing kills 30 in Baghdad: A suicide attacker has
detonated a bomb on a bus in Baghdad, killing at least 30 people, Iraqi
police said." ... "The vehicle was leaving al-Nahda bus station heading
south for the Shia town of Nasiriya when the attack occurred." ... "Witnesses
said the bus was gutted and left in flames by the explosion. Another 25
people are reported injured." ... "Iraq has been bracing for an increase
in violence by anti-US insurgents ahead of the election next Thursday for
the first full-term post-Saddam parliament." ... "Police believe the attacker
waited until the bus was pulling away slowly from the station and jumped
on board to avoid security checks." -BBC
/News
Nebraska- Police
- "Biker
cleared after 128mph chase: A US motorcyclist who
zoomed through Nebraska at over 128mph (205kph) has been cleared of reckless
driving." ... "Judge John Steinheider reluctantly ruled that speed alone
was not enough to prove reckless driving under Nebraska law." ... "Biker
Jacob Carman accelerated away from a traffic policeman after he was clocked
at 82mph (131km/h)." ... "State prosecutors admitted that they could have
won a conviction for speeding, but had opted to pursue a charge of reckless
driving." -BBC
/News
Egypt
- Politics
- "Update
9: Eight Killed in Egyptian Voting Violence." ...
"Police barricaded polling stations and fired tear gas and rubber bullets
Wednesday to keep supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood from voting
in the final day of parliamentary elections. At least eight people were
killed, including a 14-year-old boy." ... "Supporters of the banned Brotherhood
fought back, hurling stones and molotov cocktails and cornering security
forces in some towns." ... "The last day of the vote, which stretched over
a month, was by far the most violent. A total of at least 10 people have
been killed during the three rounds of balloting, which began Nov. 9 and
are considered a key test of President Hosni Mubarak's pledge to open the
autocratic political system." -AP
via -Forbes
Florida
- 
Airline
- Terrorism
- "Man
who threatened to blow up bomb killed by federal marshal."
... "As dozens of passengers exited from an American Airlines flight at
[Florida's] Miami International Airport this afternoon, one male passenger
who threatened to blow up a bomb in the gateway was shot and killed by
a federal air marshal, a government official said." ... "The 44-year-old
U.S. citizen, whose name was not immediately released, claimed he had the
bomb in a carry-on bag and tried to run away from a team of federal air
marshals after they ordered him to the ground, according to the Transportation
Security Administration." ... "One of the air marshals opened fire as the
man reached into the bag." -AP
-MercuryNews
Iraq
- Police- 
Military
- "Baghdad
Bombers Kill at Least 27 at Police Academy (Update2)."
... "At least 27 Iraqi police officers and students died and 50 were hurt
when two suicide bombers attacked a police academy in eastern Baghdad,
the U.S. military said." ... "Earlier reports that the bombers were women
and walked into a classroom were ``erroneous,'' according to the statement."
... "The attack was the deadliest against Iraqi forces since Feb. 28, when
a suicide car bomber struck police and Iraqi National Guard recruits in
Hillah, a mostly Shiite Muslim city 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of
Baghdad, killing 125." -By Caroline Alexander
-Bloomberg
US
- Iraq
- Police
- Politics
- "Bush
Offers 'Strategy for Victory' in Iraq: The president
again rejects a timetable for troop withdrawal." ... "Moving to deflect
criticism of the war in Iraq and lay out new conditions that would allow
the departure of U.S. troops, President Bush said today he would settle
for "nothing less than complete victory" there, and defined that success
as creating an Iraq in which Iraqis could live in peace protected by their
own security forces." ... "The president devoted much of the roughly 35-minute
speech to presenting a picture of Iraqi police and military units increasingly
being able to carry on the campaign against those he called "rejectionists,
Saddamists and terrorists."" ... "But he did not address three ongoing
concerns about the security forces: their de facto division into three
segments made up separately of Kurds, Shiites and Sunni; the fact that
some Sunnis are accepting the U.S. training and then joining the insurgency;
and the infiltration of the Iraqi government's security forces by members
of ethnic militia loyal to leaders other than those of the government."
-By James Gerstenzang, Tyler Marshall and Mark Mazzetti
-LAtimes
US- Mexico
- US
Immigration - 2006
Election - Politics
- Police
- 
Worker
- Tucson
- Arizona
- "Bush
revives immigration reform push: Switching priorities,
he only touches on guest-worker plan." ... "President Bush promised a renewed
push for changes in immigration law Monday, reversing the priorities he
had set out nearly two years ago by emphasizing tougher border enforcement
and mentioning his controversial guest-worker program almost as an afterthought."
... "Bush joins several congressional Republicans in Congress, including
several likely presidential candidates, who intend to make an overhaul
of the nation's immigration laws a priority heading into the 2006 midterm
elections." ... ""Illegal immigration is a serious challenge," Bush told
a gathering of border enforcement officials in Tucson [Arizona]. "And our
responsibility is clear. We are going to protect the border."" -By
Carolyn Lochhead -SFGate.com
Samuel
Alito
- Police
- Privacy
- "Alito
Memos Supported Expanding Police Powers." ... "As
a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, Samuel A. Alito Jr., the Supreme
Court nominee, played an active role in advancing the administration's
efforts to expand law enforcement powers and limit restrictions on prosecutors,
documents released Monday by the Justice Department show." ... "The 470
pages of documents, which consist mainly of memorandums Mr. Alito wrote
as a deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel in
1986 and 1987, generally address routine matters or highly technical legal
issues. In several of the memorandums, however, Mr. Alito makes a series
of arguments espousing a broad view of law enforcement authority and a
skeptical view of proposals to protect individuals from legal investigations."
-By David D. Kirkpatrick
-NYTimes
Florida
- Terrorism
- "Miami
Police Take New Tack Against Terror." ... "Police
are planning "in-your-face" shows of force in public places, saying the
random, high-profile security operations will keep terrorists guessing
about where officers might be next." ... "Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez,
who announced the program Monday, said as an example, officers might surround
a bank, check the IDs of everyone going in and out, and hand out leaflets
about terror threats." -By Curt Anderson
-AP via-WashingtonPost
Azerbaijan
- Politics
- "Azerbaijan
protest forcefully shut down: Group driven away with
water cannons." ... "Thousands of protesters in Azerbaijan shouting "Freedom!"
and vowing to occupy downtown Baku on Saturday were beaten back by riot
police wielding truncheons and water cannons. Witnesses said hundreds of
protesters were injured, along with at least 26 police officers." ... "The
demonstration, in which opposition leaders demanding new parliamentary
elections appeared to be staging an attempt to occupy the capital's Victory
Square, ended abruptly when officers in helmets and riot shields broke
apart the speaker's stand, ripped orange flags out of protesters' hands
and began beating demonstrators and opposition leaders with batons, leaving
several people lying injured in the square." -By Kim
Murphy -LAtimes
via -SFGate.com
Azerbaijan
- Politics-"Azerbaijani
activists clash with police." ... "Truncheon-wielding
police Saturday beat and dispersed opposition protesters demanding a redo
of disputed parliamentary elections, the first use of force against demonstrators
since the vote." ... "Some 15,000 opposition activists gathered in Azerbaijan's
capital, Baku, to protest Nov. 6 parliamentary elections they claimed were
rigged. It was latest in a series of such demonstrations in recent weeks."
-By Aida Sultanova -AP
via-MercuryNews
Egypt
- Police
- Religion
- "Turmoil
Grips Runoff Voting in Egypt." ... "Egyptian police
barricaded polls and arrested hundreds of supporters of the banned Muslim
Brotherhood movement Saturday, while armed backers of Islamist and secular
politicians clashed _ severely curbing turnout and scarring a parliamentary
runoff vote." ... "The violence came amid efforts by the fundamentalist
Muslim Brotherhood _ Egypt's largest Islamist group _ to bolster its already
impressive tally of 47 out of 186 seats decided so far in the three-stage
elections. The ruling National Democratic Party has claimed 122 seats and
is expected to maintain control of the 454-member legislature." -Contributions
by Mariam Fam and Nadia Abou El-Magd -AP
via -CBSNews
Samuel
Alito
- 
Family
-
Woman
- Privacy- Law
- Politics
- Advertising
- 
Pennsylvania
- Drugs
- "Alito
ad flap centers on strip search of woman, daughter."
... "When police in a small Pennsylvania coal town went to the home of
a suspected methamphetamine dealer, they sent for a female meter maid to
search the suspect's wife and 10-year-old daughter." ... "The woman took
the two to an upstairs bathroom, had them lift their shirts and drop their
pants and patted them down. Then she directed them downstairs, where they
sat on a couch while a Schuylkill County drug squad searched the home."
... "As a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, Alito found it acceptable
to search family members even if they were not specifically named in the
warrant. But his view came in a dissent to the 2-1 majority opinion written
by colleague Michael Chertoff then a judge, now the nation's Homeland
Security secretary who said that officers went beyond the terms
of the search warrant and were liable for potential damages."
-AP via -USATODAY
Ethiopia
- Police
- 
EU
- "Violence
in Ethiopia Inspires Regional Rally: Community Holds
Protests, Raises Funds to Spotlight Unrest After Elections Abroad." ...
"More than 40 people died and thousands were detained this month after
demonstrators contested the May 15 election results that favored Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi and his ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front. Medical officials have said police have killed many of
the victims; Meles contends that the opposition groups are responsible
for inciting the violence." ... "The groups say the election was rigged,
and European Union officials have said the election did not meet international
standards. But government officials say the irregularities were not significant
enough to have swayed the election." -By Aruna Jain-WashingtonPost
Idaho
- 
New_Hampshire
- 
Alaska
- 
Illinois- 
Wisconsin
- 
Colorado
- Secret
- GOV
- Police
- Intelligence
- Civil
Liberties - 
Library
- Business
- 
Health
- Privacy
- Politics
- "Senators
Vow To Block Patriot Act." ... "Half a dozen senators
worried about civil liberties –three Democrats and three Republicans –
said Thursday they will try to block the measure to renew the Patriot Act,
CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports." ... "The most controversial parts
of the law that vastly expanded FBI powers after 9/11 expire at the end
of the year unless renewed. An agreement on a measure to do that between
the House and Senate doesn't include some minimal new protections these
senators want, including having a judge review broad secret warrants when
the FBI seeks information from libraries, hospitals and banks." ... ""If
further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming
law," GOP Sens. Larry Craig [Idaho], John Sununu [New Hampshire] and Lisa
Murkowski [Alaska] and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin [Illinois], Russ Feingold
[Wisconsin] and Ken Salazar [Colorado] said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary
and Intelligence committees." -AP
-CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- Prisons
- Military
- "U.S.
Troops Discover 173 Abused Detainees In Iraq Basement:
Sunni Arab prisoners were allegedly tortured by Iraqi captors." ... "The
same day that the [US] Senate passed a resolution barring cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment of detainees in the war on terror, the Iraqi government
said Tuesday that it has ordered an investigation into the alleged abuse
of 173 detainees discovered by American troops over the weekend in the
basement of an Interior Ministry building in the Baghdad suburb of Jadriya."
... "For many Iraqis, the revelation of the secret torture center brought
back painful memories of the brutality of the Sunni-dominated Saddam Hussein
regime, blamed for killing hundreds of thousands of Shiites and Kurds[.]"
... "American officials were quick to condemn the treatment of the prisoners
with the American Embassy and U.S. military command calling the situation
"totally unacceptable," agreeing with Iraqi officials that "mistreatment
of detainees will not be tolerated."" -By Gil Kaufman
-MTV.com /News
Liberia
- Politics
- US
- UN
- "Liberian
protesters face tear gas." ... "U.N. forces fired
tear gas at angry supporters of Liberian soccer star George Weah on Friday
after they stoned police and marched to the U.S. embassy to back a demand
to halt counting in an election Weah says was rigged." ... "Police from
the U.N. peacekeeping force used the gas and batons to disperse hundreds
of Weah supporters after they broke through a line of Liberian riot police
trying to hold them back from the imposing beach side U.S. embassy building."
... "With 97 percent of polling stations' votes counted from Tuesday's
runoff ballot, Harvard-trained former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
has an unassailable 59.4 percent. But Weah and his Congress for Democratic
Change party insist the election was rigged."
-Reuters via -CNN
Jordan
- US
- Intelligence
- Police
- "Attacks
at U.S.-Based Hotels in Amman Were Minutes Apart."
... "Terrorist bombs ripped nearly simultaneously through three popular
hotels here [in Amman, Jordan] on Wednesday night, killing dozens and wounding
more than 100." ... "The Jordanian cabinet said in a statement that the
attacks, which killed 57 people and wounded 110, appeared to have been
carried out by suicide bombers. Amman, the capital, was placed under a
severe security lockdown late Wednesday with streets closed and the police
donning heavy armor. Members of Jordan's secret intelligence police force
were also out in full force. " -By Hassan M. Fattah
and Michael Slackman with contributions by Douglas Jehl and Suha Maayeh
-NYTimes
Pakistan
- 
India
- Politics
- "Police
Keep Kashmiris From Crossing Border." ... "Pakistani
police fired tear gas to disperse Kashmiri villagers Monday when some tried
to cross into Indian territory during an unprecedented frontier ceremony
by the South Asian rivals to exchange aid for victims of the Oct. 8 quake."
... "The border opening that India and Pakistan agreed to last month was
supposed to have been a much grander gesture: letting Kashmiris cross at
five points to check on long-lost relatives and visit relief camps set
up along the frontier." ... "But India on Saturday said it was prepared
to open only one crossing, and on Sunday officials on both sides said bureaucratic
wrangling would delay chances for people to cross, partly because India
must be assured that no Muslim militants will head into Indian territory."
-AP via
-CBSNews
Australia
- Police
- Intelligence
- "Australia
foils terrorist attack." ... "Australian authorities
arrested 17 people on Tuesday on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack,
raiding homes in Melbourne and Sydney less than a week after parliament
passed tougher anti-terror laws." ... "One man was shot in the Sydney raids
and the police bomb squad was examining a backpack at the scene. Outspoken
Muslim cleric Abu Bakr, who has voiced support for al Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden, was among those arrested in Melbourne." ... "The Australia Security
Intelligence Organization (ASIO), last week acknowledged for the first
time that Australia had home-grown extremists, some of whom trained overseas."
(1, 2)
-By Joanne Collins with contributions by Michelle
Nichols -Reuters
France
- Belgium
- 
Germany
- "Rioting
in France Spreads to 300 Towns." ... "Rioting by
French youths spread to 300 towns overnight and a 61-year-old man hurt
in the violence died of his wounds, the first fatality in 11 days of unrest
that has shocked the country, police said Monday." ... "As urban unrest
was reported in neighboring Belgium and Germany, the French government
faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite
massive police deployment and continued calls for calm. One riot-hit town
in suburban Paris said it was preparing to enforce a curfew." ... "Meanwhile,
governments worldwide urged their citizens to be careful in France." -By
Angela Doland with contributions by Emmanuel Georges-Picot, Thierry Boinet
and Jan Sliva -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
Texas
- 
Louisiana
- Death
Penalty - "US
death row escapee recaptured: Police in the United
States have recaptured a convicted murderer, three days after he walked
out of jail." ... "Death row inmate Charles Victor Thompson fooled at least
four prison employees to flee a Texas prison." ... "He was captured on
Sunday while using a public telephone in Shreveport in the neighbouring
state of Louisiana."-BBC
/News
Ethiopia
- Politics-
"Ethiopia
PM regrets protest dead: Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi has said he regrets the deaths of at least 46 people killed
in last week's anti-government protests." ... "But he said it was understandable
that police had panicked when facing protesters with hand grenades and
guns." ... "Speaking in Germany, Mr Zenawi accused the opposition of provoking
unrest." ... "The unrest first erupted on Tuesday after the opposition
accused the government of rigging the 15 May elections and there are fears
of more protests." ... "The elections saw Mr Zenawi's Ethiopian Peoples
Revolutionary Democratic Front take control of two-thirds of the country's
parliament." ... "After the clashes, many opposition leaders were detained."-BBC/News
France
- 
Cars
- "French
Police Arrest 186; Paris Riots Continue for 10th Night."
... "French police arrested 186 people overnight as gangs burned cars and
buildings for the 10th consecutive night in Paris suburbs, other cities
around France, and, for the first time, within the city of Paris itself.
More than 900 vehicles were set ablaze across the nation." ... "More than
550 people have been arrested and more than 2,100 vehicles have been torched
since Oct. 27." -By Alan Katz
-Bloomberg
Argentina
- US
- Mexico
- Canada
- 
Chile
- Business
- Politics-
"Summit
Protests Turn Violent in Argentina." ... "More than
1,000 demonstrators angry about President Bush's policies clashed with
police, shattered storefronts and torched businesses Friday, marring the
inauguration of the Summit of the Americas as leaders began debating creation
of one of the world's largest free trade zones." ... "The chaos reflected
the often violent, worldwide debate on free trade as the United States
and Mexico pushed to relaunch talks on a zone stretching from Canada to
Chile. Past summits on the issue _ including last year's gathering of Asian-Pacific
leaders in Chile _ have drawn bitter opposition and similarly angry protests."
-Contributed to by Alan Clendenning, Dan Molinski,
Nestor Ikeda, and Vivian Sequera -AP
via -CBSNews
Ethiopia
- Politics
- "Ethiopian
unrest spreads." ... "Gunfire echoed sporadically
around Addis Ababa for a fourth day on Friday as reports emerged that unrest
had spread beyond the capital, a development likely to deepen international
concern for Ethiopia's stability." ... "Residents contacted by telephone
said students in Dessie town, 400 km (250 miles) north of Addis Ababa had
thrown stones at police who dispersed them by firing in the air." ... "Amhara
region is the base of the Amhara people who make up about a fifth of the
ethnically-diverse
nation of 77 million, sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous after Nigeria."
(1, 2)
-By Tsegaye Tadesse -Reuters
via -ABCNEWS.com
Samuel
Alito
- Drug
- Parents
- Privacy
- Law
- "Alito
shows a different side in his dissents." ... "The
facts of the case were stunning: A 10-year-old was strip-searched in her
home by police officers whose warrant authorized only the search of her
father, a suspected drug dealer." ... "To the other judges who heard the
case, the law seemed clearly on the girl's side: The very purpose of a
warrant is to limit the scope of permissible searches." ... "But Supreme
Court nominee Samuel Alito saw it differently. And his ruling opens a window
onto one facet of his judicial philosophy." ... "Alito said the girl's
search, while unfortunate, was justified because supporting documents broadened
the warrant's sweep. It was a technicality, he said, that the particulars
were left out of the warrant itself, and that was no reason to punish good
cops who were just doing their jobs." ... "He was the only judge hearing
the case who thought the police acted properly." -By
Stephen Henderson -Knight
Ridder via -MercuryNews
Ethiopia
- Politics
- "More
violence in Ethiopia capital: Three more people have
been killed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in a third day of clashes
between opposition supporters and the police." ... "The riots were part
of protests against the general election in May, which the governing party
won. The opposition says voting and counting were rigged." ... "The main
opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, resumed protests
this week after its members refused to attend parliamentary sessions."
... "Security officers have arrested all 15 members of the CUD's Central
Committee and about 1,000 supporters according to a lawyer for the party."-BBC
/News
France
- "Paris
Rioting Continues for Eighth Night." ... "Rioters
fired at police, stoned commuter trains and torched a school, shops and
hundreds of vehicles in tough immigrant suburbs Thursday, spurring French
authorities to deploy 1,000 riot police on an eighth night of street violence."
... "The main spark for the riots came Oct. 27 in the town of Clichy-sous-Bois
when two teenagers died by electrocution while hiding from police in an
electrical substation. One youth was of Tunisian descent, and the other
was born in Mauritania. The two were at a soccer game when police arrived;
the teenagers reportedly fled to the fatal hiding place, though investigators
say police were not chasing them. Nonetheless, neighborhood youths began
setting fires, destroying property and attacking police and firefighters."
-By Sebastian Rotella
-LAtimes
Australia
- Police
- Terrorism- Civil
Liberties - Law
- "Australia
says has intelligence on terror threat." ... "Australia
has received specific information about a possible "terrorist threat" to
the country, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday, but Australia's
medium security alert remained unchanged." ... "Howard refused to give
any details about the nature or location of the threat, but said the government
would rush through changes to anti-terror laws to enable police to respond."
... "The new laws, which have been criticised by human rights and civil
liberties groups, will allow police to detain suspects for seven days without
charge, and use electronic tracking devices to keep tabs on suspects."
-By James Grubel -Reuters
via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
Wisconsin
- 
Halloween
- "Hundreds
Arrested in Wis. Halloween Crowd: Police Break Up
Crowd at Halloween Celebrations in Madison, Wis.; More Than 400 Arrested."
... "A weekend of Halloween celebrations popular with college students
resulted in more than 400 arrests, and police used bursts of pepper spray
early Sunday to break up crowds of revelers." ... "Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
suggested canceling the annual gathering. The downtown party near the University
of Wisconsin-Madison attracts college students from across the Midwest,
and has turned chaotic in the past. Last year, 455 were arrested."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Iraq
- Police
- Terrorism
- 
History
- "Defense
lawyer in Saddam trial abducted in Baghdad." ...
"A lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was kidnapped from
his home on Thursday, a day after he sat in the dock next to the former
president on the opening day of their trial for crimes against humanity."
... "His client is former judge Jawad al-Bander, a senior legal source
involved in the trial told Reuters." ... ""Saadoun Janabi was kidnapped
this evening around 8.30 p.m. (1730 GMT) from his office, which is also
his home, in the Shaab district by eight armed men," the source said."
... "Police and Interior Ministry sources confirmed the kidnapping. There
was no immediate claim of responsibility." ... "Saddam and seven others
went on trial on Wednesday on charges of crimes against humanity connected
to the killing of 148 Shi'ites from the village of Dujail in the 1980s."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny with contributions
by Ibon Villelabeitia, Alastair Macdonald, Faris Mehdawi, Aref Mohammed,
and Khaled Yacoub Oweis -Reuters
Texas
- Police
- Gay
- Civil
Liberties - "Jurors
in Texas Reject Prison Rape Lawsuit." ... "Jurors
rejected a gay convict's federal lawsuit Tuesday, deciding that six prison
officials did not violate his civil rights by ignoring his pleas for protection
from inmate rapes, as he claimed." ... "Roderick Keith Johnson, 37, had
sought unspecified damages against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
officials at the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, where he was housed for
18 months for burglary. He argued that his constitutional right against
cruel and unusual punishment was violated." -By Angela
K. Brown -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
Sudan
- Police
- "Chaos
Grows in Darfur Conflict as Militias Turn on Government."
... "The outlaws who rode into Geneina [Sudan] on camelback one recent
afternoon represent the latest grim chapter in the desert war in western
Sudan." ... "Janjaweed militias have focused their wrath on innocent villagers
for most of the two and a half years of the conflict in the Darfur region.
But on Sept. 18, in a scene that aid workers described as something out
of a Hollywood western, the militiamen surrounded the police station along
Sudan's border with Chad, roughed up the chief and freed several of their
members from jail." ... "The fact that militias trained and armed by the
government are now emboldened enough to turn their guns on the government
is a sign of trouble. It was government support of the janjaweed at the
outset that ignited the fighting in Darfur that killed tens of thousands
of people and displaced two million villagers." (1, 2)
-By Marc Lacey -NYTimes
Russia
- Terrorism
- Police
- "Militant
Attacks on Russian City Leave 108 Dead." ... "Authorities
said today that 108 people have been killed in Russia's North Caucasus
region as Islamic militants have staged coordinated attacks on police and
government buildings in a new wave of violence spilling over from war-torn
Chechnya." ... "At least 24 law enforcers, 12 civilians and 65 guerrillas
have died in the two days of fighting in Nalchik, capital of the predominantly
Muslim republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, authorities said. Seven more guerrillas
were reported killed in an outlying district and 17 were captured." ...
"Gunmen who held hostages overnight in a Nalchik police station and in
a souvenir shop were killed this morning, and the captives were freed,
authorities said." (1, 2)
-By David Holley with contributions by Natasha Yefimova
and Yakov Ryzhak
-LAtimes
New
York
- Terrorism
- Police
- "'No
Evidence' Of NYC Subway Threat." ... "An official
at the Department of Homeland Security tells CBS News correspondent Bob
Orr that "no evidence has surfaced through intelligence to substantiate
the threat" last week against the New York City subway system." ... ""All
intelligence agencies agree there is no evidence to support the original
information," the official said." ... "John Miller, an assistant FBI director
and the agency's chief spokesman, said federal authorities agreed with
the New York police department's assessment that any risk had subsided."
-AP
-CBSNews
New
York
- Police
- Transportation
- "UPDATE
2-New York subway alert ends, plot appears unfounded."
... "New York called off a high alert for the city's subways on Monday
after detainees in Iraq thought to be plotting to bomb the nation's biggest
transit system indicated the threat lacked credibility." ... "The enhanced
security had included more bag searches plus an increase in uniformed and
undercover officers patrolling the largest mass transit system in the United
States." ... "[New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, expected to win re-election
to a second term on Nov. 8, ordered the special police deployment on Thursday
after federal authorities warned that "terrorist operatives" may be planning
to attack the subway with remote-controlled bombs hidden in briefcases
or baby strollers." (1, 2)
-By Christine Kearney -Reuters
US
- Iraq
- New
York
- Transportation
- MIL
- Police
- Intelligence
- "New
Yorkers Baffled Over Differing Stances on Terrorist Threat."
... "Less than 24 hours after Bloomberg made a dramatic, late afternoon
announcement about an "imminent" subway bombing plot, the nation's largest
transit system was operating smoothly, New York City officials said. Police,
many in riot gear, were deployed in greater numbers than usual at many
of the city's 468 stations." ... "One senior federal law enforcement official
said the threat reporting was based on "third party information," or conversations
among men in Iraq that were overheard by others; this led to men being
detained over comments they had allegedly made about traveling to New York
to detonate bombs in the subway." ... "The official, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity, said the information was gleaned from an ongoing military
operation in Iraq, passed to the National Counter-terrorism Center at the
CIA, and then disseminated to participating law enforcement and intelligence
agencies-including Homeland Security." -By Josh Getlin
and Josh Meyer
-LAtimes
New
York- Police
- Intelligence
- "UPDATE
4-New York hikes subway security after terror plot."
... "New York police stepped up security on Thursday after what city authorities
called the most specific threat yet of a terrorist attack on the subway
system in the coming days, but officials in Washington played down the
threat." ... "Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the FBI had alerted him to "a
specific threat to our subway system," which had come from overseas but
had already been partially thwarted." ... "In Washington, Homeland Security
Department spokesman Russ Knocke said: "At this time the intelligence community
believes that this information, while specific, is of doubtful credibility.""
(1, 2)
-By Christine Kearney and Mark Egan
-Reuters
Pakistan
- 
Afghanistan
- MIL
- Terrorism
- "Taliban
spokesman arrested in Pakistan." ... "The self-proclaimed
Taliban spokesman, known for changing his phone number weekly and making
wild claims about purported Taliban attacks, has been arrested in Pakistan,
officials said." ... "Mullah Hakim Latifi, who has served as a roving one-man
Taliban press secretary for almost two years, was captured in Baluchistan
province, just over the border from southern Afghanistan, Pakistan government
spokesman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad." -By
Kim Barker -ChicagoTribune
via -MercuryNews
Government
- Military
- Police
- Disaster
- Terrorism
- Politics
- "GI's
as postdisaster police? Think again." ... "The US
military has long done more than fight wars. It's built roads, run jobs
programs, snagged drug dealers, integrated schools, created the Internet,
and provided hurricane relief. Why? It's seen as the government's only
lean, mean, can-do machine." ... "Now President Bush asks if the military
should also take the lead in domestic disasters, even serving as police
- conducting arrests, searches, and seizures of American citizens." ...
"But such concerns would not even need to be raised if Mr. Bush and Congress
simply challenged an unspoken assumption: that the United States is incapable
of having an organization that can act as effectively and efficiently in
a time of major crisis as can the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast
Guard." ... "With the possibility of more frequent and powerful hurricanes
as well as a major terrorist attack on a US city, the country needs a force
dedicated specifically to disasters, but it's not the military."-CSMonitor
Iraq
- Police
- MIL
- Woman
- "Woman
suicide bomber strikes Iraqi police." ... "A woman
suicide bomber blew herself up at an Iraqi police recruitment centre in
the former rebel bastion of Tal Afar in one of a string of attacks today,
killing five people, police said." ... "Another bomber killed a civilian
in an attack on a police checkpoint in the town of Baquba northeast of
Baghdad, just a day after a similar attack on a police recruitment centre
there killed 10 people." ... " ... "Attacks by female suicide bombers are
rare in Iraq but insurgents have repeatedly targeted army and police recruitment
centres." -AFXNews
via -Forbes
Tom
DeLay - Media
- "Escorted
by police, dogged by the media: Indictment hubbub
surrounds congressman's workday — and confuses tourists." -By
Samantha Levine -HoustonChronicle.com
US- Iraq
- MIL
- Politics
- Cindy
Sheehan
- "Sheehan
Arrested During Antiwar Protest." ... "Cindy Sheehan,
whose protest camp outside President Bush's vacation home in Texas became
a focal point of the antiwar movement this summer, was arrested today outside
the White House at the head of a civil disobedience campaign intended to
dramatize the opposition to the war in Iraq." ... "On the third day of
demonstrations that brought tens of thousands of opponents to the war to
Washington on Saturday, a much smaller group sat down in front of the executive
mansion, after being refused an opportunity to meet with a White House
staff member." -By Ryan G. Murphy and Emma Vaughn
-LAtimes
Nepal
- MIL
- Police
-
- "Torture
is systematic in Nepal -- UN rights envoy." ... "Government
forces and Maoist rebels routinely torture detainees in Nepal where a raging
leftist insurgency has killed thousands of people, a United Nations envoy
said on Friday." ... ""Torture and ill-treatment is systematically practised
in Nepal by the police ... and the RNA (Royal Nepal Army) in order to extract
confessions and to obtain intelligence," Manfred Nowak, U.N. Special Rapporteur
on torture, told reporters." ... "He said the agency had received a large
number of allegations of torture and ill-treatment committed during the
conflict." -Reuters
via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
Nepal
-
-
- "Nepal
police arrest 87 journalists demanding press freedom, 200 others."
... "Police arrested 87 journalists as they gathered Friday to protest
media restrictions in Nepal while thousands of pro-democracy activists
demonstrated elsewhere in the city to demand an end to absolute royal rule.
About 200 of those protesters were also arrested." ... "The arrests came
amid an often-violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the capital
and underscored rising tensions in the Himalayan kingdom, which is beset
by a long-running communist insurgency." ... "Police arrested the journalists
as they prepared to hold a rally to demand the lifting of restrictions
on the press and freedom for some half-dozen reporters jailed for critical
writings against the government. The restrictions were imposed by the royal
government after King Gyanendra took over absolute power in February."
-By Binaj Gurubacharya
-AP via -CBC.ca
Nepal
- Police
- "Nepal
detains 200 after violent anti-king protests." ...
"Pro-democracy activists in Nepal fought pitched battles with police in
Kathmandu on Wednesday, battling teargas volleys with bricks, stones and
slogans as protests mounted against King Gyanendra." ... "At least 200
protesters opposed to the king -- who sacked the government in February
and seized absolute power -- were arrested while trying to enter the city
centre where rallies are banned." ... ""Down with autocracy. We want democracy,"
the crowd shouted as baton-wielding policemen chased them into narrow lanes."
-Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
CA
- Los
Angeles -
- "UPDATE
2-Major power outage hits Los Angeles." ... "A major
power outage hit Los Angeles area on Monday, knocking out electricity to
thousands of customers as officials scrambled to determine the cause and
police declared a state of emergency." ... ""The city is on a tactical
alert and obviously traffic is going to be impacted," Los Angeles Police
spokesman Kevin Maiberger said." ... "Maiberger described a tactical alert
as "what happens when the city goes into a state of emergency. Police officers
will only be responding to calls where there is a threat to life.""
-Reuters
Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- New
Orleans - Louisiana
-
-
-
- 
- 
- "Katrina
Takes Environmental Toll: Warning Issued On Water;
Federal Probes Of Relief Loom." ... "The dank and putrid floodwaters choking
this once-gracious city [New Orleans, Louisiana] are so poisoned with gasoline,
industrial chemicals, feces and other contaminants that even casual contact
is hazardous and safe drinking water may not be available for the entire
population for years to come, state and federal officials warned Tuesday."
... "As hundreds of police officers, emergency workers and volunteers waded
through flooded neighborhoods trying to coax remaining residents from their
ruined homes, health officials offered the first tentative assessments
of the environmental damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina and its resulting
floods: They ranged from contaminated water to the destruction of coastline
that acts as a buffer against hurricanes and other severe weather." ...
"State officials also released new tallies of Katrina's destruction, with
up to 160,000 homes in Louisiana destroyed and nearly 190,000 public school
students displaced by the storm and its aftermath." (1, 2,
3)
-By Timothy Dwyer, Jacqueline L. Salmon, and Dan Eggen
with contributions by David Brown, Juliet Eilperin, Michael A. Fletcher,
Spencer S. Hsu, Shankar Vedantam and Lucy Shackelford -WashingtonPost
Hurricane
Katrina - New
Orleans - Louisiana
- Animals
- Pets
-
- TX
-
- "Sad
story of boy and his dog grips nation." ... "Among
the thousands of crushing moments from last week's deadly hurricane, one
image brought the anguish home to many: a tearful little boy torn from
his dog while being shuttled to safety." ... "It tugged at the heartstrings,
prompting an outpouring from around the country of people on the hunt for
both the boy and his dog Snowball in hopes of a reunion." ... "The boy
was among the thousands sheltered at the [New Orleans, Louisiana] Superdome
after the hurricane. But when he went to board a bus to be evacuated to
Houston [Texas], a police officer took the dog away. The boy cried out
-- "Snowball! Snowball!" -- then vomited in distress. The confrontation
was first reported by The Associated Press. Authorities say they don't
know where the boy or his family ended up." ... "Many of the animals --
dogs, cats, ferrets and birds -- that police collected at the Superdome
were herded into a stairwell until the human evacuation was complete. Of
the 50 animals rescued from the Superdome on Sunday, not all of them survived."
-By Matt Sedensky with contributions by Paul J. Weber
and Brian Skoloff -APvia
-Boston/Globe
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- 
-
- -
"Thousands
assess damage; 10,000 urged to leave city: Search
for survivors, bodies continues; toll still unknown." ... "As thousands
streamed back into the city's suburbs to assess the damage to their homes,
authorities pleaded with the estimated 10,000 remaining in flooded areas
of New Orleans [Louisiana] to get out of a city that was, in the words
of the deputy police chief, destroyed by ''the greatest catastrophe on
American soil."" ... "As police in boats conducted a building-to-building
search for survivors and bodies, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said he
thought the death toll could rise as high as 10,000. [Louisiana] Governor
Kathleen Blanco said ''several thousand" could be dead. But with the official
body count at 71, authorities said it would be weeks before an accurate
death toll could be established." -By Kevin Cullen
and Keith O'Brien -Boston/Globe
Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- Louisiana
- "Police
department under nearly unbearable strain: In New
Orleans [Louisiana], 2 officers have committed suicide, and 200 others
have walked away." ... "Reeling from the chaos of this overwhelmed city,
at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs,
and two have committed suicide, police officials said Saturday." ... "Some
officers officially told their superiors they were leaving, police officials
said. Others worked for a while and then stopped showing up. Still others,
for reasons that are not always clear, never made it in after the storm."
... "The absences come during a period of extraordinary stress for the
New Orleans Police Department. For nearly a week, many of its 1,500 members
have had to work round the clock, trying to cope with flooding, an overwhelming
crush of evacuees, looters and occasional snipers." -By
Joseph B. Treaster -NYTimes
via -HoustonChronicle.com
-
-
- Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
-
- "Katrina
poses key test for stretched National Guard: Part-time
soldiers - having served in Afghanistan and Iraq - are now called up for
duty in Gulf Coast disaster." ... "If the Iraq war showcases how Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has recast the National Guard - turning it from
a reserve deployed only in times of crisis to an active, operational force
- then the aftermath of hurricane Katrina will go a long way toward determining
whether this new mission is spreading America's part-time soldiers too
thin, further taxing an already stressed force and endangering the nation."
... "Though Iraq has strained the National Guard, Defense officials have
insisted that there are enough soldiers at home to deal with any domestic
disaster. Now, with some Guard members comparing New Orleans [Louisiana]
to Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein - gripped by chaos and looting
- the Pentagon will have to prove its calculations correct." ... "It comes
at a time when 138,000 troops - including 80,000 members of the National
Guard - are deployed in Iraq." -By Mark Sappenfield
-CSMonitor
-
- Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- Arkansas
-
- "La.
governor warns troops will "shoot and kill"." ...
"Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans
on Thursday that National Guard troops are under her orders to "shoot and
kill" to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina." ... "Announcing the arrival of 300 Arkansas National Guard troops
in New Orleans fresh from service in Iraq, Blanco said, "these troops are
battle-tested. They have M-16s and are locked and loaded."" ... ""These
troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will," she said."
-Reuters
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- Mississippi
-
-
- "New
Orleans Gets More Troops to Stop Katrina Looting (Update2)."
... "An additional 16,000 National Guard members were ordered to Louisiana
and Mississippi to combat looting and quell gunfire that disrupted the
rescue of survivors of Hurricane Katrina." ... "The troops will be added
to 22,000 already deployed in the two states, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff said today at a news conference. He said 1,400 will go
to New Orleans [Louisiana] daily for the next three days, expanding a force
of 3,000 that's trying to maintain order in a city flooded and left without
power by the storm three days ago." ... "``Looters are hitting food stores,
they're hitting department stores, they're in jewelry stores and gun stores
-- they're stealing guns wherever they can,'' Sergeant Frank Coates, a
spokesman for the Louisiana Police, said in a telephone interview from
Baton Rouge, the Louisiana state capital. ``It's not just to survive, they're
taking goods for personal gain.'' -By Heather Burke
-Bloomberg
Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- Louisiana
-
-
- -
"New
Orleans shelters to be evacuated: Floodwaters rising,
devastation widespread in Katrina's wake." ... "New Orleans [Louisiana]
resembled a war zone more than a modern American metropolis Tuesday, as
Gulf Coast communities struggled to deal with the devastating aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina." ... "Deteriorating conditions in New Orleans will
force authorities to evacuate the thousands of people at city shelters,
including the Louisiana Superdome, where a policeman told CNN unrest was
escalating." ... "The officer expressed concern that the situation could
worsen overnight after three shootings, looting and a number of attempted
carjackings during the afternoon." ... "The U.S. Coast Guard said its crews
assisted in the rescue Monday of about 1,200 people stranded by high water
in the New Orleans area, and thousands more were rescued Tuesday morning."
-Contributions made by Anderson Cooper, Kathleen Koch,
David Mattingly, Jeanne Meserve, Miles O'Brien, Jim Spellman, Gary Tuchman
and John Zarrella -CNN
- 
- CA
- Sacramento
-
-
-
- Religion
- "Four
indicted in alleged terrorist plot against LA-area targets."
... "The head of a militant Islamic prison gang and three others were indicted
Wednesday on federal charges of planning terrorist attacks against National
Guard facilities, the Israeli Consulate and other Los Angeles-area targets."
... "Prosecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by [Levar Haley] Washington,
[Gregory Vernon] Patterson and [Hammad Riaz] Samana at the behest of [Kevin]
James, a California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate who founded the radical
group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS. Washington converted to Islam
while serving three years in the prison for a previous robbery conviction."
-By Jeremiah Marquez -AP
via -MercuryNews
Hurricane
Katrina - Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Alabama
- Disaster
-
-
-
- "Katrina
Death Toll Climbs to 60 People; New Orleans Is Flooded."
... "Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama,
killing dozens of people, cutting off power to 2 million and leaving most
of New Orleans flooded by water as deep as 20 feet. U.S. and state officials
say it may be the nation's worst natural disaster." ... "The Federal Emergency
Management Agency is moving 23 disaster medical assistance teams into areas
hit by Katrina, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement. The
agency also has sent urban search and rescue task forces as well as water,
ice, generators and other supplies into the Gulf region." ... "The National
Guard has mobilized about 7,500, or 42 percent, of 31,500 available personnel
to distribute military meals and water, clean up debris and assist law
enforcement officials if needed, said spokesman Jack Harrison." ... "More
than 40 Coast Guard aircraft with more than 30 boats are conducting search,
rescue and humanitarian aid operations, the Homeland Security Department
said." -By Heather Burke -Bloomberg
- 
-
- "KPMG
to pay $456M to settle tax-shelter charges." ...
"[Accounting firm] KPMG LLP will pay $456 million in fines to settle U.S.
charges related to fraudulent tax shelters developed and sold from 1996
to 2002, the company and U.S. officials announced Monday." ... "It [KPMG]
said under terms of a deferred prosecution agreement that charges will
be dismissed on Dec. 31, 2006 when it complies with the terms of the agreement."
... "Federal law enforcement officials said it was the largest tax shelter
fraud case ever filed. The firm admitted it engaged in a fraud that generated
at least $11 billion in false tax losses, which cost the U.S. at least
$2.5 billion in evaded taxes." -By Robert Schroeder
-MarketWatch
-
-
-
-
- Civil
Liberties - Connecticut
- "Suit
Seeks to Bar FBI Library Data Access." ... "The American
Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit to block the FBI from obtaining
records from an organization possessing information about library patrons."
... "The civil liberties advocacy group released a government-censored
version of the lawsuit Thursday. The case originally was filed under seal
Aug. 9 in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn. [Connecticut], because
the law under which the FBI acted bars the organization or its attorneys
from "disclosing to any person" that the FBI has demanded information."
... "ACLU Associate Legal Director Anne Beeson said the FBI and Justice
Department had censored the document and allowed release of that version."
-By Michael J. Sniffen
-AP via -LAtimes
- Palestine
-
-
- "Israelis
remove final protesters: Withdrawal ends with evacuations
in West Bank." ... "The evacuations of Sanur, and another West Bank settlement,
Homesh, ended relatively peacefully, despite predictions from Israeli police
that militant settlers would mar the disengagement process with violence.
Instead, the massive military and police operation demonstrated new will
by the Israeli government to confront the settlers and their political
backers." ... "More than 50,000 army, border police, and police officers
collaborated in the withdrawal as part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
plan to ''disengage" from the Palestinians, avoiding bloodshed while withdrawing
9,000 settlers and 6,000 of their supporters in less than a week -- an
operation that was originally planned to last as long as two months." -By
Thanassis Cambanis with contributions by Alon Tuval
-Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- "Jordanian
arrests tied to rocket attacks." ... "Jordanian authorities
have arrested several people they think might lead to the attackers who
fired rockets at U.S. warships at the port of Aqaba, a Jordanian official
said Saturday." ... "The arrests were part of an investigation led by Jordanian
authorities, with help from U.S. and Israeli officials."
-CNN
Bangladesh
- Religion
-
- "Bangladesh
security forces arrest 87 in connection with bombings -police chief."
... "Bangladesh security forces have arrested 87 people in connection with
a wave of simultaneous bombings that police said were linked to a banned
group of Muslim extremists." ... "'We launched a nationwide crackdown and
so far we have arrested 87 people,' Abdul Kaiyum, Bangladesh's Inspector
General of Police, told Agence France-Presse. 'Our forces are everywhere.
We are on the highest alert.'" ... "Around 350 small homemade bombs exploded
yesterday within an hour of each other in almost every town or district
across the country, killing two people and injuring more than 100." ...
"The home ministry said leaflets from the outlawed Jamayetul Mujahideen
were found at all of the bomb sites, calling for the installation of Islamic
law in Bangladesh, the third-largest Muslim-majority nation in the world."
-AFXNews via -Forbes
Bangladesh
- 
-
- "Bangladesh
intensifies probe into blasts." ... "Bangladeshi
security forces intensified a hunt on Thursday for militants who simultaneously
set off hundreds of crude bombs across the country, killing two people
and injuring about 100." ... "Roughly 200 homemade bombs exploded on the
streets, at courts and near key government buildings in various places
across the Islamic nation shortly after Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia
left Dhaka on Wednesday on a five-day visit to China." ... "In the capital
Dhaka, an elite security force used sniffer dogs searching for suspects
and bombs in key areas, including hotels, and in diplomatic areas, witnesses
said." -By Serajul Islam Quadir and Masud Karim
-Reuters via -AlertNet.org
-
-
-
-
- "4
hijackers' ID'd as al-Qaeda before 9/11, officer says."
... "A military intelligence team investigating al-Qaeda identified four
members of the terrorist organization a year before they became 9/11 hijackers,
according to an officer on the intelligence team. But he says that the
FBI did not get the information and that the 9/11 Commission failed to
expose the lapse." ... "The officer, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a specialist
in human intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an interview
Wednesday that the team, called Able Danger, collected information on al-Qaeda,
including links between members and the activities of terrorist cells worldwide."
-By John Diamond -USATODAY
John
G. Roberts Jr.
- Kansas
- Abortion
-
-
-
- "`Summer
of Mercy' becomes an issue in Roberts confirmation."
... "In 1991 John Roberts was a young federal official confronted with
a growing crisis in Wichita, Kan [Kansas]." ... "Anti-abortion protesters
in Wichita were attempting to shut down the city's abortion clinics." ...
"The "Summer of Mercy" protests heightened community tensions, so much
so that a federal judge in Wichita ordered U.S. Marshals to keep the clinic
open." ... "Roberts, representing the administration of President George
H.W. Bush, had a choice: let the judge's ruling stand, or fight it. He
chose to intervene." -By Alan Bjerga -Knight
Ridder via -MercuryNews
-
-
- New
York
- "Congressman:
Defense Knew 9/11 Hijackers." ... "The Sept. 11 commission
will investigate a claim that U.S. defense intelligence officials identified
ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as a likely part of
an al-Qaida cell more than a year before the hijackings but didn't forward
the information to law enforcement." ... "Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. and vice
chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees,
said Tuesday the men were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence
unit known as ``Able Danger.'' If true, that's an earlier link to al-Qaida
than any previously disclosed intelligence about Atta." ... "According
to Weldon, Able Danger identified Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdar
and Nawaf al-Hazmi as members of a cell the unit code-named ``Brooklyn''
because of some loose connections to New York City." -By
Kimberly Hefling with contribtions by John J. Lumpkin
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
-
- 
-
- Drugs
-
- "Protesters
in China get angrier and bolder." ... "The police
began deploying in large numbers before dusk Monday, but the angry villagers
had already made their moves. They had learned their lessons after studying
reports of riots that had swept rural China in recent months. Sneaking
over mountain paths and wading through rice paddies, they made their way
to a pharmaceuticals plant, they said, for a showdown over the environmental
threat they say it poses." ... "As many as 15,000 people massed here on
Sunday night and fought with the authorities, overturning police cars and
throwing stones, undeterred by thick clouds of tear gas." ... "The riots
in Xinchang are part of a rising tide of discontent in China, with the
number of mass protests like these reaching 74,000 last year from about
10,000 a decade earlier, according to government figures. The details have
varied from incident to incident, but the recent wave of protests shares
a foundation of accumulated anger over the failure of China's political
system to respond to legitimate grievances and defiance of the local authorities,
who are often seen as corrupt." -By Howard W. French
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
-
-
- Karl
Rove
- "Bush
alters standard for firing in leak case: President
says an aide would have had to commit a crime, not just be involved." ...
"President Bush said Monday that he will fire anyone in the administration
found to have committed a crime in the leaking of a CIA operative's name,
creating a higher threshold than he did one year ago for holding aides
accountable in the unmasking of Valerie Plame." ... "After originally saying
anyone involved in leaking the name of covert CIA operative would be fired,
Bush said: "If somebody committed a crime, they will no longer work in
my administration."" -By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen-WashingtonPost
via -SFGate.com
- Civil
Liberties -
-
- Free
Speech
- "FBI
Says It Has Files on Rights Groups." ... "The FBI
has thousands of pages of records in its files relating to the monitoring
of civil rights, environmental and similar advocacy groups, the Justice
Department acknowledges." ... "The organizations, including the American
Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace, are suing for the release of the
documents. The organizations contend that the material will show that they
have been subjected to scrutiny by FBI task forces set up to combat terrorism."
... "The FBI has denied singling out individuals or groups for surveillance
or investigation based solely on activities protected by the Constitution's
guarantees of free speech." -By Mark Sherman
-AP via -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- "U.N.
troops accused in deaths of Haiti residents." ...
"Opposition groups and residents of two Port-au-Prince slums say dozens
of innocent people were killed during anti-gang raids by U.N troops and
Haitian police last week, but U.N. and police officials denied the accusations."
... "The Lawyers Committee for Individual Rights, a group known as CARLI
and regarded as one of the most independent rights groups operating in
Haiti, said U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police killed unarmed residents,
including children and elders, in the slums of Bel-Air and Cite Soleil,
strongholds of supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide."
-By Joseph Guyler Delva
-Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
- Transportation
- "U.S.
raises terror alert for transit systems: No reports
of threats to U.S." ... "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on
Thursday raised the alert level for the nation's mass transit systems to
orange, or high, in response to the deadly bombings on London's transit
system earlier in the day." ... ""The United States government is raising
the threat level from code yellow, or elevated, to code orange, high, targeted
only to the mass-transit portion of the transportation sector," Chertoff
said. "I want to emphasize that: targeted only to the mass transit portion
of the transportation sector."" ... "Security for American mass transit
systems was reviewed and tightened after the September 11, 2001, terror
attacks against the United States and the bombings of trains in Madrid
in March of 2004." ... "But now, at the direction of President Bush, Chertoff
said the Department of Homeland Security is "working with the Department
of Transportation, our other federal partners, state and local officials,
and transportation authorities to take all necessary precautions and to
increase the security of our transportation systems and the citizens who
ride them."" -CNN
- Transportation
-
-
-
- "Four
London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 700." ... "Four explosions
rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during
the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in the
worst attack on London since World War II. At least 40 people were killed,
U.S. officials said, and more than 700 were wounded." ... "The four blasts
went off within an hour, beginning at 8:51 a.m. (3:51 a.m. EDT), and hit
three subway stations and the double-decker bus. Authorities immediately
shut down the subway and bus lines that log 8.4 million passenger trips
every weekday." ... "As the city's transportation system ground to a near-halt,
buses were used as ambulances and an emergency medical station was set
up at a hotel. Rescue workers, police and ordinary citizens streamed into
the streets to help." -By Jane Wardell with contributions
by Jill Lawless, Barry Renfrew, Emily Rotberg, Sarah Blaskovich, Emma Ross
and Nick Mead -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
Idaho
- "Police
believe accused kidnapper killed 3 earlier: Suspect
charged, held without bail as 8-year-old girl recalls abduction." ... "Authorities
believe the man accused of kidnapping an 8-year-old girl and her brother
is also responsible for the May killings of three people at the family
home, a sheriff's spokesman said today." ... "Joseph Edward Duncan III
was arrested Saturday at a [Idaho] Denny's restaurant with Shasta Groene,
the sole survivor of the May 16 attack." ... "He has only been charged
with kidnapping in the abduction of Shasta and her 9-year-old brother,
Dylan. Today marks the first time authorities have said they believe Duncan
is responsible for the bludgeoning deaths of the children's mother, older
brother and mother's boyfriend." -By Nicholas K. Geranios
-AP via -HoustonChronicle.com
Idaho
- "Records
reveal violent history of Idaho suspect." ... "By
the time he was 16, Joseph Edward Duncan III estimated he had raped 13
younger boys, some at gunpoint, according to Pierce County court records."
... "At 17, after he was arrested for the rape and torture of a 14-year-old
Pierce County boy in 1980, Duncan was deemed to be a sexual psychopath
and as an alternative to prison was admitted for treatment to the Sex Offender
Program at Western State Hospital. However, he was booted from the program
after 22 months when officials learned he was sneaking off the Western
campus and having "violent rape fantasies," said Pierce County Prosecutor
Jerry Horne. A judge then reinstated his 20-year prison sentence." ...
"Duncan, now 42, was charged yesterday with two counts of first-degree
kidnapping, presumably in connection with the abduction of Shasta Groene,
8, and her brother, Dylan, 9, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho." -By
Christine Clarridge with contributions by Mike Carter and -APwriters
Nicholas K. Geranios and Sarah Cooke via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Idaho
- "Idaho
girl told police suspect tied up family: Convicted
sex offender faces two kidnapping counts." ... "Eight-year-old Shasta Groene
told investigators she saw Joseph Edward Duncan III tie up members of her
family in their home on the day authorities say they were killed, according
to an investigative report released Tuesday." ... "Earlier Tuesday, Duncan
was formally charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping. If convicted,
Duncan, 42, could face the death penalty or life in prison." ... "Shasta
and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, disappeared May 16, the same day authorities
discovered their mother, 40-year-old Brenda Groene, a brother, 13-year-old
Slade, and their mother's 37-year-old boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, bound and
bludgeoned to death at the family's home in Coeur d'Alene [Idaho]." -CNN
Kentucky
-
- 
- "Kentucky
State Auditor Issues Alert to Sanitize Surplus Computers Containing Personal
Information." ... "On Tuesday Kentucky State Auditor
Crit Luallen announced that a random sampling of computers, designated
as surplus property to be offered for sale to the public, revealed that
one computer, formerly used by the Kentucky State Police, contained records
of 5,828 people who had been issued access cards to state facilities between
December 1997 and August 2002." ... "The records contained personal information,
including names and social security numbers, for 5,133 individuals."
-GovTech.net/news
- -
- "Sharon
orders security crackdown on far-right Jews." ...
"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he had ordered "every necessary
step" to be taken to prevent Jewish ultranationalists from trying to derail
his Gaza withdrawal plan through violence and road blockades." ... "Sharon
lashed out at far-right Jews in newspaper interviews on Thursday after
a day of clashes between security forces and anti-withdrawal activists
in Gaza and on Israel's highways." ... "It was the worst day of violence
between Israeli police and soldiers and ultranationalists bent on scuttling
Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in the occupied Gaza
Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank in August."
-Reuters.co.uk
- - Consumer
- "MasterCard
Says Breach Exposes 40 Mln Cards to Fraud (Update4)."
... "Visa International Inc. and MasterCard International Inc., the biggest
credit-card brands, said the FBI is investigating a security breach that
began in 2004 and exposed 40 million cards to fraud in what may be the
largest such case on record." ... "MasterCard said an ``unauthorized person,''
who wasn't identified, gained access to payment card data through a third
party processor." -By George Stein -Bloomberg
-
- "Kyrgyz
protesters storm HQ." ... "Police and Interior Ministry
troops regained control of the building about an hour after the crowd of
about 2,000 had gathered, shouting slogans in support of the candidate,
Urmat Baryktabasov." ... "His registration was denied because Kyrgyz officials
said they had proof he was a citizen of neighboring Kazakhstan."
-AP via -CNN
-
-
-
-
-
- Civil
Liberties - "House
defies Bush, votes to repeal part of Patriot Act:
Book-reading probes would be banned." ... "The Republican-led House bucked
President Bush on Wednesday by voting to upend the Patriot Act provision
that allows federal agents to examine people's book-reading habits at public
libraries and bookstores as part of terrorism investigations." ... "The
238-187 vote might be only a temporary victory for librarians, booksellers
and civil libertarians who had opposed the controversial provision of the
2001 law as a threat to privacy rights." ... "The White House issued a
statement threatening to veto the appropriations bill if its final version
contains any language that weakens the Patriot Act. It's also unclear how
the Senate will deal with the library provision." -By
Edward Epstein -SFGate.com
-
- "16
terror suspects held in Spain." ... "Spanish police
have arrested 16 suspected Islamic terrorists, including 11 believed to
be linked to the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, officials said
Wednesday." ... "The other five suspects were linked to last year's Madrid
[Spain] train bombings, the Interior Ministry said." ... "Authorities identified
the alleged leader of the 11 suspects as Samir Tahtah, 28, who has a previous
police record for document forgery." ... "Of the five people arrested in
connection with the Madrid train bombings, authorities identified the prime
suspect as Moroccan native Mohamed Larbi Ben Sellam, 28." -By
Al Goodman -CNN
- Ethiopia
- "Ethiopia
rounds up youths in post-violence crackdown." ...
"Ethiopian security forces rounded up dozens of youths into trucks and
kept 14 opposition members in detention on Friday as part of an ongoing
crackdown on post-election unrest this week that has killed 27 people."
... "The violence flared after weeks of opposition accusations that the
ruling party intimidated voters and rigged the polls." ... "Early results
show the EPRDF [Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front ] and
allies won enough seats for a third five-year term ruling the nation of
72 million, sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous. But the CUD [Coalition
for Unity and Democracy] surprisingly increased its share of parliamentary
seats by nearly tenfold and made a clean sweep in Addis Ababa." -By
Katie Nguyen with contributions by Andrew Heavens
-Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
-
- Ethiopia
- "Government
Forces in Ethiopia Kill 22: Police, Troops Fire on
Crowds Contesting Results of Parliamentary Vote." ... "Ethiopian authorities
said police and troops opened fire on stone-throwing protesters who were
looting shops, robbing banks, attacking police officers and trying to free
detainees. The government blamed the main opposition group, the Coalition
for Unity and Democracy, for inciting the violence." ... "An unknown number
of opposition leaders were reportedly placed under house arrest." ... "A
spokesman for the opposition denied it had anything to do with the violence
or a strike by taxi drivers that began Wednesday and severely hampered
transportation in Addis Ababa, the capital." (1, 2) -By
Katie Nguyen -Reuters
via-WashingtonPost
-
-
- Secrets
- Civil
Liberties - "Bush
pushes for Patriot Act." ... "Portions of the Patriot
Act -- signed into law six weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks
to catch other terrorists -- are set to expire at the end of the year.
The law bolstered FBI surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror
cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado
for months and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases." ... "Civil
liberties groups and privacy advocates say the law undermines freedom.
But Bush has said the act has been vital to tracking terrorists and disrupting
their plans." -AP
via -CNN
-
-
-
-
- "California
Father and Son Face Charges in Terrorism Case." ...
"An American man of Pakistani descent has been arrested along with his
father, a naturalized American citizen, as part of an investigation by
federal law enforcement officials into possible terrorist connections with
Al Qaeda." ... "According to an F.B.I. affidavit filed in Federal District
Court in Sacramento, about 40 miles north of this agricultural town, Hamid
Hayat, 22, told investigators last weekend that he had been trained "on
how to kill Americans" at a camp in Pakistan affiliated with Al Qaeda.
The affidavit said that during Mr. Hayat's weapons training, "photos of
various high-ranking United States political figures, including President
Bush, would be pasted on their targets."" ... "Mr. Hayat, who was born
in California, returned to the United States on May 29 after spending more
than two years in Pakistan." ... "The affidavit said Mr. Hayat's father,
Umer Hayat, 47, who drives an ice cream truck in Lodi, provided financial
support for his son's training." ... "They have been charged with lying
to federal investigators about the training camp and are scheduled to appear
in court on June 21, said Johnny L. Griffin III, a lawyer for the father."
-By Dean E. Murphy and David Johnston with contributions
by Carolyn Marshall -NYTimes
Doc
Hastings - 
Jack
Abramoff - 
Tom
DeLay - Money
- Politics
- Federal
- Law
- Investigation
- 
Clothing
- 
Factories
- Workers
- 
Human
Rights - Seattle
- 
Washington
- Texas
- Northern
Mariana Islands
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Secrets
- Kansas
- "Panel
to weigh beefed-up Patriot Act: Move would broaden
FBI wiretap powers." ... "The Senate Intelligence Committee will meet behind
closed doors this week to consider legislation that could dramatically
expand the government's police powers under the USA Patriot Act, including
a little-discussed provision to enlarge the FBI's ability to wiretap people
who it suspects are national security threats." ... "The proposal, in a
draft bill sponsored by committee chairman Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas,
would lift one of the last restrictions on special warrants the FBI can
obtain through a secret court originally set up to monitor foreign spies:
that the information the bureau wants must be related to international
terrorism or foreign intelligence." ... "Instead, the FBI could use the
warrants, which bypass normal constitutional safeguards, to look for evidence
of unrelated crimes that it could use to get suspects off the street. The
wiretap provision is one of three major additions in the draft bill, which
would reauthorize the Patriot Act, the package of enhanced law enforcement
powers enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ... "If the bill became
law, it also would give FBI agents the power to write their own subpoenas
without permission from a judge, allowing them to seize records from hotels,
banks, and Internet service providers." -By Charlie
Savage -Boston/Globe
-
-
- "SEC
expected to introduce fewer regulations." ... "The
Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to introduce fewer new regulations
under Christopher Cox's chairmanship compared to his predecessor, and may
strike a new tone on enforcement, people familiar with the chief US financial
watchdog said on Thursday." ... "SEC insiders also said Mr Cox, the congressman
nominated by President George W Bush to replace William Donaldson, was
expected to forge a new unity among the three Republican commissioners
at the SEC if he is confirmed by the Senate." -By
Andrew Parker -FT.com
-
-
-
- Secrets
- "Former
FBI agents debate Felt's ethics: Some see betrayal
-- others say that he acted heroically." ... "Those who disagree with what
[former FBI deputy director W. Mark] Felt did question his motives, and
believe he betrayed his government and violated the FBI tradition of not
revealing investigative findings to the public until the case has been
resolved." ... "It was 1972, and then-President Richard Nixon was mired
in a scandal his administration was desperately trying to cover up. The
head of the FBI was L. Patrick Gray, an outsider Nixon had picked after
Hoover's death. Gray would be implicated in the Watergate scandal." ...
"Felt, a career agent and the FBI's No. 2 official, was in charge of running
the investigation -- a probe that Nixon had secretly ordered the CIA to
thwart." ... ""If Felt looked around and said, 'There is nowhere else to
turn,' then I would like to think that history would judge him as a conflicted
individual determined to do the right thing," [Retired FBI Agent George]
Grotz said of Felt's decision to leak aspects of his investigation to the
[Washington] Post." -By Stacy Finz
-SFGate.com
-
-
-
-
- Secrets
- "FBI's
No. 2 Was 'Deep Throat': Mark Felt Ends 30-Year Mystery
of The Post's Watergate Source." ... "Deep Throat, the secret source whose
insider guidance was vital to The Washington Post's groundbreaking coverage
of the Watergate scandal, was a pillar of the FBI named W. Mark Felt, The
Post confirmed yesterday." ... "As the bureau's second- and third-ranking
official during a period when the FBI was battling for its independence
against the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Felt had the
means and the motive to help uncover the web of internal spies, secret
surveillance, dirty tricks and coverups that led to Nixon's unprecedented
resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and to prison sentences for some of Nixon's
highest-ranking aides." ... "Felt's identity as Washington's most celebrated
secret source had been an object of speculation for more than 30 years
until yesterday, when his role was revealed by his family in a Vanity Fair
magazine article. Even Nixon was caught on tape speculating that Felt was
"an informer" as early as February 1973, at a time when Deep Throat was
supplying confirmation and context for some of The Post's most explosive
Watergate stories." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By David Von Drehle-WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- "Afghanistan
Mosque Bombing Kills Kabul Police Chief, 16 Others."
... "A suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in the Afghan city of
Kandahar, killing 17 people, including the police chief of the capital
Kabul, the country's Interior Ministry said." ... "Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has struggled to establish control across the country, and on May
23 agreed to a strategic partnership with the U.S. including help on security
matters. The U.S. military, with 18,000 troops in Afghanistan, said last
month it is seeing increased resistance from the Taliban, who were ousted
from power by the 2001 U.S.-led attack." -By Alex
Morales -Bloomberg
-
- "A
boost for religious practice: A Supreme Court decision
on prison rights is seen as a win for minority religious groups, too."
... "Government accommodations of religious worship are not an unconstitutional
form of favoritism." ... "In a major First Amendment decision acknowledging
the power of Congress to safeguard religious liberty, the US Supreme Court
Tuesday ruled 9 to 0 that religious accommodations do not violate the Constitution's
prohibition of government endorsement of religion. The high court's ruling
upholds a federal law that requires state corrections officials to remove
any unjustified burdens on the ability of prison inmates to worship." ...
"The decision marks an important victory not only for religious inmates
but for all minority religious groups in the United States that rely on
such accommodations to freely practice their faith without government interference.
A ruling that invalidated the federal law would have placed in question
a wide range of religious accommodations and exemptions." -By
Warren Richey with contributions by Linda Feldmann -CSMonitor
New
York
-
- "New
York Police Want 400 More Surveillance Cameras."
... "The Police Department wants to install as many as 400 surveillance
cameras in high-crime and high-traffic areas around the city, a department
spokesman said yesterday." ... "The cameras, which would record digital
videotape but would not be monitored live by police officers, would be
in addition to 80 surveillance cameras already installed by the department,
said the spokesman, Paul J. Browne." ... "So large an installation of security
devices in the city's public spaces has raised concerns among some who
fear they may compromise privacy." -NYTimes
Ohio
- "Police:
Ohio killings murder-suicide: Detective: 18-year-old
kills 5, himself on day of graduation ceremony." ... "On the same day he
was to attend his high school graduation ceremony, Scott Moody, 18, shot
five friends and relatives to death and wounded another before killing
himself, Ohio police said Monday." ... "Logan County Sheriff Michael Henry
said Moody shot people Sunday in two nearby homes outside Bellefontaine
in an apparent murder-suicide. Moody's sister Stacy Moody, 15, was wounded
in the neck and was hospitalized Monday in critical condition, Henry said."
-CNN
Scott
J Bloch
- Gay
- Government
- Employees
- Human
- Rights
- Enforcement
- Politics
- "Official
Says Law Doesn't Cover Gays: Counsel Cites Lack of
Authority to Enforce Discrimination Ban." ... "Special counsel Scott J.
Bloch told a Senate panel yesterday that he lacks the legal authority to
enforce the [Republican President] Bush administration's ban on discrimination
against federal employees based on sexual orientation." ... "If a federal
manager fires, reassigns or takes some other action against an employee
simply because that employee is gay, there is nothing in federal law that
would permit the Office of Special Counsel to protect the worker, Bloch
testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee
on oversight of government management, the federal workforce and the District
of Columbia." ... "Since taking office in January 2004, the Bush appointee
has been accused of failing to enforce a long-standing policy against bias
in the federal workplace based on sexual orientation, unnecessarily reorganizing
the OSC to try to run off internal critics, and arbitrarily dismissing
some personnel complaints and whistle-blower disclosures in an effort to
claim reductions in backlogs." -By Christopher Lee
-WashingtonPost
- Drugs
- "Tackling
crime, Baltimore [Maryland] style." ... "Such is
the self-confidence of the drug-dealing fraternity, that last year they
made a DVD called "Stop Snitching"." ... "After a few months of careful
production, they've [the police] released a video of their own, complete
with hip hop soundtrack." ... "Videos are not the only potent hip hop medium
that the police are dealing with." ... "A few months ago, several manufacturers
began making Stop Snitching T-shirts, and one local chain began selling
them in its stores." ... "The police have now printed their own T-shirts
too." -By Matthew Wells-BBC
/News
Uzbekistan
- Kyrgyzstan
-
- "Uzbek
troops enter border town after unrest." ... "Uzbek
forces retook control of the eastern border town of Qorasuv early on Thursday
after days of unrest in the aftermath of bloody clashes in nearby Andizhan."
... "Interior ministry troops rolled into the town on the border with Kyrgyzstan
at 4 a.m. and, encountering little if any resistance, quickly established
control over bridges and other key points, local people said." ... "The
small town of about 25,000 has seethed with unrest since last Saturday
when about 200 or so people rebelled and destroyed a local police headquarters."
(1, 2)
-By Dmitry Solovyov with contributions by Maria Golovnina
-Reuters
- "50
bodies in 2 days in Iraq." ... "At least eight Iraqis
were found shot near a Baghdad dam and a slain Iraqi Kurd was left in a
garbage dump in northern Iraq, the police said Monday, raising the number
of bodies recovered in the past 48 hours to 50." ... "Few details were
available on the motives behind the killings. Insurgents regularly target
Iraqi security forces, government officials and others deemed to be collaborating
with U.S.-led forces in the country. Others are kidnapped and killed in
attempts to extort ransom. But there have also been a stream of retaliatory
attacks between armed Sunni and Shiite groups."
-AP via -IHT.com
Uzbekistan
-
- "Uzbeks
bury dead after troops fire on protesters." ... "Families
of hundreds killed in Uzbekistan when troops opened fire to quell protests
buried their dead on Sunday as witnesses told of bloody mayhem in which
women and children were shot "like rabbits."" ... "In a single incident
in Andizhan [Uzbekistan] on Friday, witnesses said soldiers had fired on
a crowd including women and children and their own police comrades who
were begging them not to shoot." (1, 2)
-By Dmitry Solovyov -Reuters
Uzbekistan
-
-
- "Thousands
Flee Uzbek Violence: After the slaying of protesters,
panicky throngs gather at the border only to find the crossing closed.
Fires and rioting break out." ... "Police stations, tax offices, the prosecutor's
office and the customs terminal were set ablaze in the town of Korasuv,
on the border of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass
reported. About 5,000 people had fled there Saturday from Andijon, 30 miles
to the west, it said." ... "Uzbek troops and police in Andijon fired into
crowds of thousands of protesters Friday, which included armed militants
and unarmed civilians. Human rights activists in Andijon put the death
toll there at 300 to 500. This morning, a doctor told Associated Press
that she had seen about 500 corpses laid out at a school guarded by soldiers."
-By David Holley-LAtimes
-
- 
-
- Religion
- "3
More Die in Afghanistan Anti-U.S. Riot." ... "Police
clashed with anti-U.S. demonstrators in two Afghan towns, killing at least
three people, and Afghan students burned an American flag in Kabul on Thursday
as protests spread over reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the U.S.
jail in Guantanamo Bay." ... "The unrest came a day after riots in the
eastern city of Jalalabad left four people dead - the worst anti-American
protests in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001." ... "The
source of anger was a brief report in the May 9 edition of Newsweek magazine
that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed Qurans on toilets in
order to rattle suspects, and in at least one case ``flushed a holy book
down the toilet.''" -By Stephen Graham
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
New
York -
- 
-
-
- "New
York mayor orders police, fire to work together under protocol."
... "A day after police and fire officials clashed over how to respond
to biological, chemical or radiological attacks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg
warned that anyone who doesn't follow the city's new emergency protocol
will be out of a job." ... ""We're going to have everybody working together
to protect the people of the City of New York, and anybody who doesn't
feel that they can do that doesn't have to, but they just can't work here,"
Bloomberg told reporters on Tuesday." -By Sara Kugler
-AP via -Newsday.com
-
-
- "60
Killed in Suicide Attacks Across Iraq." ... "Five
suicide attacks in three cities in Iraq killed more than 60 people Wednesday.
In the deadliest, a man with hidden explosives set them off in a line of
people outside a police and army recruitment center in northern Iraq, killing
30 and wounding 35, police said." ... "In Tikrit, meanwhile, a suicide
car bomb exploded in a small market near a police station, killing at least
27 people and wounding 75, police said." ... "Three car bombs also exploded
in Baghdad, killing at least four, police said." (1, 2)
-By Yahiya Ahmed -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Father
Arrested in Slaying of Two Girls: Police Accuse Father
of Killing His 8-Year-Old Daughter and Her Friend in Illinois." ... "When
the father of a missing 8-year-old found her bloodied body in a ravine,
next to her lifeless best friend, it seemed every parent's worst nightmare."
... "Jerry Hobbs, just out of prison, led police to the girls himself.
They wanted to know how he found them. They kept asking him questions.
Finally, after hours of being interviewed, Hobbs was charged with both
murders, a crime that stunned this small city near the Wisconsin line."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Nathaniel Hernandez with contributions by Don
Babwin -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Tom
Ridge - 
John
Ashcroft - Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Military
- Government
- Attorney
- FBI
-
- New
York -
-
- "Blasts
near British Consulate in N.Y. probed: No injuries
cited; explosions occur as Britons vote." ... "Two homemade grenades exploded
early yesterday in a large concrete planter outside the Manhattan office
building that houses the British Consulate about the time the polls were
opening for Britain's general election." ... "No one was injured, and police
emphasized they did not know whether the consulate was the target. Authorities
were studying images from 17 surveillance cameras in and around the midtown
Manhattan building in an effort to identify who planted two grenades about
3:30 a.m." ... "Counterterrorism specialists, the FBI, and intelligence
officers were helping with the investigation, [New York Police Commissioner
Raymond] Kelly said." -By Tatsha Robertson with contribitions
by Susan Milligan, Charlie Savage, Glenn Yoder and the -AP
-Boston/Globe
-
- "Ariz.
Inmate Convicted in Hostage Standoff: Arizona Inmate
Convicted of 19 Charges in Long Hostage Standoff, Including Sex Assault."
... "An inmate who took two guards hostage in a watchtower last year in
one of the nation's longest prison hostage standoffs was convicted Wednesday
on 19 charges, including sexual assault." ... "Ricky Wassenaar, 42, was
convicted of kidnapping, aggravated assault and sexual assault against
a female guard who was held hostage for 15 days. He was acquitted on one
count, attempted second-degree murder." (1, 2)
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Jurors
start deliberating in prison hostage case." ... "After
eight weeks of trial that ranged from high theater to droning tedium, jurors
began deliberating Tuesday in the case of Ricky Wassenaar, who is defending
himself in Maricopa County Superior Court against 20 counts stemming from
his January 2004 siege of a tower at a state prison near Buckeye [Arizona]."
-By Michael Kiefer -AZCentral
-
-
-
- "Suicide
bomber kills 60 in Iraqi Kurd city." ... "A suicide
bomber struck the offices of a Kurdish party in northern Iraq on Wednesday
and the U.S. military said the blast killed about 60 people only a week
after a new government promising stability was formed." ... "In Baghdad,
insurgents kept up a relentless campaign of car bombings that have rattled
the country since a cabinet was named, mounting an attack that killed nine
National Guardsmen and wounded 20 people, police said." ... "Security guards
and witnesses said a crowd had gathered outside the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) office in Arbil, which served as a police recruiting center,
when the bomber struck. The American military said 150 people were also
injured." (1, 2,
3)
-By Shamal Aqrawi and Seb Walker
-Reuters
-
-
- "Old
brutality among new Iraqi forces: Allegations of
rights abuses have risen over several months." ... "Throughout the war
in Iraq, the brutality of the battlefield has occasionally spilled into
interrogation rooms and prisons. The central figure in the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse
scandal, Pfc. Lynndie England, pleaded guilty Monday to seven counts of
mistreating prisoners." ... "But with Iraqis taking a greater role in battling
the insurgency and patrolling their own streets as the new government begins
work, accusations of human rights abuses are shifting away from the Americans
and onto Iraqi police officers and soldiers." ... "The accusations of abuse
range from reports of prisoner torture and death of detainees to the arbitrary
arrest and abuse at the hands of inexperienced and untrained police officers."
-By Jill Carroll -CSMonitor
- Drugs
- "Marijuana
behind 45 percent of U.S. drug arrests." ... "Marijuana
arrests account for almost half of all drug arrests in the United States,
which spends $4 billion a year to catch, prosecute and incarcerate offenders,
according to a report released on Tuesday.."
... ""Since 1990, there have been 6.2 million arrests for marijuana possession
and an additional one million for marijuana trafficking. As of 2002, marijuana
arrests comprised 45 percent of all drug arrests," the report by The Sentencing
Project said." -By Alan Elsner -Reuters
Massachusetts
- "Massachusetts
Fortune Tale Too Good to Be True." ... "Two New England
men regaled television audiences this week with their story of finding
1,900 antique U.S. bank notes -- worth at least $50,000 -- in one of their
backyards." ... "Investigators became suspicious over discrepancies in
their stories and by Friday police had the men in court, saying the treasure
was taken from a construction site where they had worked." -By
Greg Frost -Reuters
-
- "Inmate
denies rape in Arizona prison hostage incident."
... "An inmate defending himself against charges stemming from a prison
hostage standoff last year denied sexually assaulting a female correctional
officer he held captive for 15 days." ... "Ricky Wassenaar, who is acting
as his own attorney, took the witness stand Tuesday to contradict previous
testimony by former hostage Lois Fraley." -AP
via -TucsonCitizen
-
- Florida
-
- "Feds
Indict 14 Reputed Mob Figures in Murders, Some Going
Back As Far As 1970." ... "FBI and IRS agents began arresting the defendants
Monday morning in Illinois, Arizona and Florida. The agents found one defendant
dead, apparently of natural causes, authorities said." -By
Mike Robinson -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Eleven
Iraqis Break Out of U.S. Jail, 10 Recaptured." ...
"There are around 10,000 people in U.S. custody in Iraq. Most are being
held on suspicion of aiding the country's 2-year-old insurgency."-Reuters
-
-
- "Gains
in Iraq, but no 'tipping point': Despite recent bombings
and a kidnapping, insurgent attacks are down as are numbers of US troops
wounded." ... "For US forces in Iraq, the good news is that they appear
to be making progress in their battle against an entrenched insurgency.
The bad news is that the insurgents are far from defeated -and it will
be some time before Iraqi government forces can fight the rebels on their
own." ... "It's true, as President Bush noted in a speech this week, that
the new Iraqi government's own security forces now outnumber in-country
US troops. But experts note that the majority of these are police and lightly
armed security guards, and are not really comparable to US military personnel."
-By Peter Grier and Faye Bowers -CSMonitor
-
"Sources:
Dragnet grabs 10,000 fugitives: Operation Falcon
nets 162 accused or convicted of murder." ... "More than 10,000 fugitives
from justice have been captured in a nationwide, weeklong dragnet, law
enforcement sources said." ... "The mission was dubbed "Operation FALCON",
which officials say is an acronym for "Federal and Local Cops Organized
Nationally."" ... "More than 3,000 law enforcement officials searched for
fugitives, and as many as 10,000 may have helped at least part-time, officials
said. The raids were coordinated by five national fugitive task forces
and 83 district task forces led by the U.S. Marshals Service."
-CNN
-
- Alabama
- Georgia
- North
Carolina
- Executions
- "Rudolph
set to plead guilty in 4 blasts: Victims expected
in Birmingham [Alabama], Atlanta [Georgia] courtrooms." ... "Eric Robert
Rudolph is scheduled to appear in two courtrooms in two cities Wednesday
to plead guilty to four bombings, including a deadly blast during the 1996
Olympics in Atlanta." ... "Rudolph's plea deal with prosecutors spares
Rudolph the death penalty." ... "Rudolph, a survivalist who avoided capture
for more than five years by hiding in the woods of North Carolina, is expected
to appear in federal court in Birmingham around 8 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) to plead
guilty to a January 1998 bombing of a women's clinic that killed a policeman
and injured a nurse." -CNN
Hacking
- Consumer
- "Concerns
over ID theft mount: LexisNexis breach widens; GM
credit accounts at risk." ... "Identity theft concerns mounted yesterday
as LexisNexis said a security breach at one of its subsidiaries may have
been 10 times more severe than an earlier estimate, and GM MasterCard rushed
to replace the credit cards of customers affected by a breach at an unidentified
national retailer." ... "GM MasterCard sent letters to customers late last
week telling them that ''a national retailer's computer system has had
a security breach and your credit card account number may be among those
that were compromised." A copy of the letter was provided to the Globe
by one local GM MasterCard customer." -By Bruce Mohl
-Boston/Globe
-
-
- Civil
Liberties News - "Patriot
Act: What's not known feeds debate: Bush officials
say that controversial law-enforcement powers are working, and should be
extended." ... "Time isn't easing concerns over the enhanced law-enforcement
powers of the USA Patriot Act, judging by the debate that's firing up on
Capitol Hill over the renewal of its expiring provisions." ... "President
Bush calls the Patriot Act an invaluable tool in the war on terror, but,
until this week, little was known about where, why, or how often the law
has been applied." ... "Last week, Montana became the fifth state to pass
a resolution critical of the Act. Since 2001, more than 375 local governments
have passed resolutions criticizing the law or declaring "civil liberties
safe zones" in a bid to discourage cooperation with the law." -By
Gail Russell Chaddock -CSMonitor
-
- New_Jersey
- "Nation's
largest terror drill begins: Organizers of the $16
million mock disaster view failure as a way to learn." ... "The biggest
anti-terrorism drill ever held in the United States got under way Monday
with a mock biological attack in New Jersey and a simulated chemical-weapons
explosion in Connecticut." ... "Named TOPOFF 3, the $16 million, weeklong
exercise is meant to find weak spots in the nation's emergency planning."
-By Wayne Parry -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
- 
-
-
- "Thief
steals UC-Berkeley laptop." ... "University of California-Berkeley
police are investigating the theft of a campus laptop computer containing
information on 98,000 individuals." -CNN
- "Tribal
leader's son held in Minnesota killings: Juvenile
is suspected of helping gunman plan reservation rampage, officials say."
... "Federal authorities have arrested the son of Red Lake tribal chairman
Floyd Jourdain Jr. in connection with the shooting spree that killed 10
people on the tribe's Minnesota reservation last week, a law enforcement
source with knowledge of the investigation said Monday." ... "U.S. Attorney
Thomas Heffelfinger in Minneapolis announced an arrest Monday but declined
to provide details about the juvenile suspect or his alleged connection
to the killings, citing federal confidentiality rules governing juveniles."
-By Dan Eggen and Dana Hedgpeth -WashingtonPostvia
-SFGate.com
-
- "Insurgent
attacks on police leave eight dead across Iraq."
... "Insurgents gunned down a neighborhood police chief and set off a suicide
bomb near a patrol guarding a holy shrine, part of a series of attacks
Monday targeting Iraqi security forces that left at least eight people
dead, including four police officers." ... "Insurgents appear to be focusing
attacks on Iraqi security forces, who are slowly taking over the fight
against Iraq's insurgency in an effort that U.S. officials hope will pave
the way for an eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops." -By
Traci Carl -AP
via -Boston/Globe
-
- "Assailants
attack in Iraq's north and south as Christians celebrate Easter."
... "A roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police patrol Sunday in a southern city
and al-Qaida's arm in Iraq posted a video purportedly showing a kidnapped
Iraqi Interior Ministry official being killed, as Iraq's newly elected
lawmakers were summoned for their much-anticipated second session." ...
"A video posted Sunday on the Internet purportedly showed an Iraqi Interior
Ministry official hostage being shot dead by militants from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's
terror network." ... "There was no way to independently authenticate the
video, which was posted on a militant Web site." -By
Edward Harris -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- Kyrgyzstan
- "Kyrgyzstan
Protesters Storm Gov't Building." ... "Protesters
stormed the presidential compound in [the capital, Bishkek] Kyrgyzstan
on Thursday, seizing control of the symbol of state power after clashing
with riot police who had surrounded it during a large opposition rally.
The defense minister was led out of the building by demonstrators." ...
"About 1,000 protesters managed to clear riot police from their positions
outside the fence protecting the building, and about half that number entered
the compound and went into the building through the front entrance. Others
smashed windows with stones, while hundreds of police watched from outside
the fence." -By Steve Gutterman-Guardian.co.uk
- Kyrgyzstan
- "Kyrgyz
capital sees first protest." ... "Riot police have
broken up a protest in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, the first since anti-government
demonstrations swept the country's south." ... "Up to 200 people gathered
in Bishkek's main square, but police broke up the rally before it could
get going." ... "Police reportedly hit some of the crowd with sticks and
arrested 10 organisers." ... "It is not clear how closly the event was
linked to protests in the south, where the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad
are under effective opposition control."-BBC
/News
-
-
-
-
- Kyrgyzstan
-
- "Kyrgyzstan
Must Tackle Poll Irregularities, U.S. Says (Update2)."
... "Kyrgyzstan, which borders China and the Central Asian republics of
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is a strategically important country.
Both the U.S. and Russia maintain military bases in the country, with the
U.S. using its Manas base to aid operations in Afghanistan, to the south."
... "Opposition supporters took over government offices in a third southern
town late yesterday, Interfax reported. The protesters occupied offices
in Kyzyl-Kiya, the news agency said, citing unidentified police officials.
Protests have taken place in Osh and Jalal-Abad in recent days." -By
Paul Tighe -Bloomberg
- Kyrgyzstan
- "Kyrgyz
President Makes Hardliner Security Head." ... "[President]
Akayev, who promised not to resort to a massive use of force against demonstrators
on Tuesday, named the head of police in the capital Bishkek as new interior
minister to deal with protests which are trying to force him from office
and are dividing the mountainous Central Asian country." ... "In his first
public comments after becoming [interior] minister, Keneshbek Dushebayev
made clear that security forces were ready to get tough to restore order."
... "Shortly before he spoke, riot police moved in and broke up an anti-Akayev
demonstration of about 200 people in the capital." ... "Reuters correspondent
Dmitry Solovyov said police beat demonstrators and drove several away in
buses. "It was very brief and very violent," he said." -By
Olga Dzyubenko with contributions by Dmitry Solovyov and Michael Steen
-Reuters
via -Wired
- 
- 
- "'CSI'
Effect or Just Flimsy Evidence? The Jury Is Out:
The Blake case raises the issue of whether forensic shows influence how
much proof is needed." ... "Blake's defense attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach,
said he purposely picked jurors who would not be turned off by scientific
experts testifying about particles of gunshot residue and the way blood
spatters. He said he wanted jurors "who were interested in science because
I knew [the prosecution] did sloppy scientific work."" ... "Potential Blake
jurors were asked, "How often do you watch TV programs that show real-life
or dramatized police activities (for example, 'Cops' and '911,' 'Law &
Order,' 'CSI')?" Half the jurors ultimately selected said they watched
such shows regularly. Two said they watched them "rarely." The answers
of the others were not made public, at their request." -By
Andrew Blankstein and Jean Guccione-LAtimes
via KTLA
- Wisconsin
- "Police
Focus on Religion in Milwaukee Shootings." ... "The
police said Monday that they were increasingly focused on religion as the
motive for a man's murderous rampage through a church service on Saturday
at a suburban Milwaukee hotel, promising a full investigation even though
the killings ended in suicide." ... "The local pastor of the Living Church
of God, Randy L. Gregory, who was killed along with his 16-year-old son,
appears to have been executed, the authorities said, while others among
the seven dead and four injured were shot at random." ... "The Living Church
of God, an offshoot of a sect seen by some as a cult, the Worldwide Church
of
God, is a fringe group that advocates literal adherence to the Bible, observes
a Saturday Sabbath, rejects the Holy Trinity concept and frequently focuses
on a coming apocalypse." -By Jodi Wilgoren
-NYTimes
- Wisconsin
- "Wisconsin
Church Gunman May Have Been Angry at Sermon." ...
"A gunman who opened fire at a crowded church service in a Wisconsin hotel,
killing seven people, including the pastor and his son, was a congregant
who may have been angry about a sermon, police said on Sunday." ... "It
was during a church gathering in a meeting room at the hotel that [Terry]
Ratzmann, a computer programer who was about to lose his job, entered the
room from the back. He fired a total of 22 shots into the crowd of about
50 to 60 people, police told reporters." -Reuters
- Wisconsin
- "Wis.
Sect Focused on 'End Time' Prophecy: Religious Sect
Involved in Deadly Shooting at Wis. [Wisconsin] Hotel Focused on 'End-Time'
Prophecies." ... "Terry Ratzmann, the man who police say killed seven people
and then himself during a church service, was a member of the Living Church
of God, a denomination that focuses on "end-time" prophecies." ... "The
church's estimated 6,300 members in 40 countries place a strong emphasis
on using world news to "prove" that these are end times, to be followed
by Christ's second coming." ... "This year, the group's leader, Dr. Roderick
C. Meredith, wrote that events prophesied in the Bible are "beginning to
occur with increasing frequency."" (1, 2)
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Agencies
Watch for Al Qaeda Spies: Counterintelligence officials
are concerned that Al Qaeda operatives may have tried to get jobs at the
CIA and other agencies to spy on U.S. efforts." ... "U.S. counterintelligence
officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives
may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort
to spy on American counterterrorist efforts." ... "So far, about 40 Americans
who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged
and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said.
Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA." ... "Also, three
senior counterintelligence officials said they feared terrorist groups
may be trying to place an "insider" in America's fast-growing counterterrorist
planning and operational networks as part of a long-term strategy to compromise
U.S. intelligence efforts." ... "The CIA director, Porter J. Goss, last
month gave the White House plans to increase by 50% the number of CIA clandestine
officers and analysts in an effort to improve intelligence on terrorist
groups and the spread of weapons of mass destruction." -By
Bob Drogin-LAtimes
via KTLA
- "Terror
Suspects Buying Firearms, U.S. Report Finds." ...
"Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms
legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation
that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws." ... "People
suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred
from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government
Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist
groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap." ... "Since the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials and gun control groups
have voiced increasing concern about the prospect of a terrorist walking
into a gun shop, legally buying an assault rifle or other type of weapon
and using it in an attack." (1, 2)
-By Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
-
-
- "Iraq
suicide bomb kills at least 125: Deadliest single
insurgent attack of war." ... "In the deadliest single insurgent attack
of the Iraq war, a suicide car bombing killed 125 people Monday in Hilla
where police recruits were waiting to get physicals, Iraqi government and
health officials said." ... "The attack wounded more than 150 others when
the car bomb detonated outside a government office, the officials said."
... "Police recruits and Iraqi security forces are frequently targeted
by insurgents. A similar suicide attack on September 4, 2004, killed 47
recruits." ... "Before Monday, the deadliest single attacks killed at least
84 people August 29, 2003, at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, and at least
85 people March 2, 2004, in Karbala." -Jane Arraf,
Ingrid Formanek, Kianne Sadeq, and Zoran Stevanovic -CNN
- 
-
- Utah
- "Underwater
bike ride to launch students' eight-week crime spree."
... "Starting in the liberal state of California, they hope to evade the
attention of local police officers when they ride a bike in a swimming
pool and curse on a crazy-golf course." ... "In the far more conservative
- and landlocked - state of Utah, they will risk the penitentiary when
they hire a boat and attempt to go whale-hunting." ... ""There are thousands
of stupid laws in the United States, but we are limiting ourselves to breaking
about 45 of them," said Richard Smith, from Portreath, Cornwall." -By
Gerard Seenan -Guardian.co.uk
- "Forensic
Identification of 9/11 Victims Ends: More Than 1,000
Victims Unidentified Due to Technological Limits." ... "Shortly after the
9/11 terrorist attacks, authorities said they would continue searching
until they could return to every family something of their lost relative."
... "But now, families of nearly half of the 2,749 who died in the attacks
will soon receive letters from the New York City Medical Examiner's Office
saying it has reached the limits of forensic science for now." ... "Remains
of 57 percent of the victims were identified using DNA, dental records,
or bits of jewelry." (1, 2)
-ABCNEWS.com
